Visual Pollution

Photo by: cubephoto

Visual pollution is an aesthetic issue, referring to the impacts of
pollution that impair one's ability to enjoy a vista or view. The
term is used broadly to cover visibility, limits on the ability to view
distant objects, as well as the more subjective issue of visual clutter,
structures that intrude upon otherwise "pretty" scenes, as
well as graffiti and other visual defacement.

Visibility is a measure of how far and how well people can see into the
distance. Haze obscures visibility. It is caused when light is absorbed or
scattered by pollution particles such as sulfates, nitrates, organic
carbon compounds, soot, and soil dust. Nitrogen dioxide and other
pollution gases also contribute to haze. Haze increases with summer
humidity because sulfate and other particles absorb moisture and increase
in size. The larger the particles, the more light they scatter.

Haze is most dramatically seen as a brownish-grey cloud hovering over
cities, but it also obscures many beautiful vistas in U.S. national parks.
At Acadia National Park in Maine, visual range on a clear day can be 199
miles. On a hazy day, that can be reduced to 30 miles. At its worst, haze
at Grand Canyon National Park was so severe that people could not see
across the 10-mile wide canyon. An enormous coal-fired electric plant, the
Navajo Power Generating Station, about 80 miles north of the Grand Canyon,
was thought to be the source of the pollution causing canyon haze. In 1985
researchers at Colorado State University injected methane-containing
deuterium
into the power plant's smoke emissions. Deuterium is not normally
present in the air. When monitors determined the presence of deuterium in
canyon air, researchers were able to demonstrate that the plant was
responsible for much of the canyon haze. The result was a landmark
settlement in which Navajo's owners agreed to a 90-percent cutback
in sulfur dioxide emissions by 1999.

Utility boilers and vehicular emissions are both major sources of
haze-causing pollution. The haze problem is greatest on the east coast of
the United States because of the higher levels of pollution and humidity
in that region. The pollution that causes haze can travel thousands of
miles, and improving regional visibility requires interstate cooperation.
Wood smoke is a contributor in the west, and forest fire smoke and
windblown dust are natural sources of haze.

The pollutants that cause haze are also a health concern because they
often result in respiratory problems among humans and other species.
Controls designed to reduce the pollution from vehicular and smokestack
emissions will also reduce visual pollution. In addition, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued regional haze regulations
that call on

The top of a ninety-five-foot-tall wireless phone antenna made to
look like a cypress tree, blending with the other cypress trees in a
Metairie, Louisiana, neighborhood. (

AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission.

)

The Los Angeles skyline with mountain peaks visible in the
background. (

states to establish goals and strategies and to work together in regional
groups to improve visibility in 156 national parks and wilderness areas.

In Southeast Asia, haze caused by massive forest fires cost billions of
dollars in health care and lost tourist revenue in the last decade. Fires
in Sumatra and Borneo affected not only Indonesia, but also Malaysia,
Singapore, and Thailand. Most fires were set deliberately, and often
illegally, to clear land for planting and development and to cover up
illegal logging. Some of the fires spread to peat deposits beneath the
forest, and these may continue to burn for years.

Visual blight—billboards, power lines, cell towers, even ugly
buildings—is literally in the eye of the beholder. It is
subjective. To the businessman, a well-placed billboard may be a thing of
beauty. But to the traveler whose view of the rolling hills or the rustic
village is obstructed, it is visual pollution.

Billboards proliferated in the 1940s and 1950s, spurred by the growth of
automobile traffic and construction of interstate highway system, but in
1965 Lady Bird Johnson, wife of President Lyndon Johnson, attacked their
growing presence on our nation's roadways. "Ugliness is so
grim," the first lady proclaimed, and she fought for and won
passage of the Highway Beautification Act of 1965. This groundbreaking law
prompted a number of states, including Alaska, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont,
to ban billboards totally; there were loopholes, however.

Sensitivity to visual pollution has led utility companies to bury power
and telephone lines in some communities. The latest fight against visual
pollution centers on cell towers, needed to provide cellular telephone
service. One solution has been to disguise cell towers as trees or cacti.
Graffiti, spray-painted

A similar perspective of the Los Angeles skyline, but with much of
the scenery obscured by smog. (

Bibliography

National Research Council Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology.
(1991).
Haze in the Grand Canyon: An Evaluation of the Winter Haze Intensive
Tracer Experiment.
Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

National Research Council Environment and Resources Commission on
Geosciences.
(1993).
Protecting Visibility in National Parks and Wilderness Areas.
Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Internet Resources

Malm, William (National Park Service and Colorado State Institute for
Research on the Atmosphere). "Introduction to Visibility."
Available from
http://www.epa.gov/oar/visibility
.

User Contributions:

Visual pollution also includes graffiti which means scribbing on the public or private property. I personaly think that the article should give some solutions to how the environment should be kept clean and green especially to the future citizens.

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